Ortiz and others could leave the UFC (Old news, but a very good article and worth checking out.)

The May 24 match between Tito Ortiz and Lyoto Machida at UFC 84 from Las Vegas is among the most important matches of 2008.

Ortiz is a key component of a battle that ends with the last man left standing.

That battle isn’t in a ring or a cage, but a business war for supremacy of the mixed martial arts industry.

Ortiz is the biggest of a host of name fighters whose UFC contracts will be expiring at a time in which a slew of new rival promotions are in desperate need of big-name fighters.

For groups such as Elite XC, which debuts soon on CBS, and Mark Cuban’s HDNet Fights, the key to challenging the UFC’s supremacy in the marketplace is having the right television exposure, the right stars, the right business sense and a degree of long-term planning and patience.

just an idea... but what seems to be the key issue with fighters in the ufc is that they want more money. If they were getting what they were asking for, they really wouldnt care about whether or not the contracts were exclusive or any of the other minor clauses. The few key exceptions that i can think of to this are fedor, kang and gomi. Fedor is coming around and gomi is still in some sort of talks with the ufc last time i checked. The problem with this is that the ufc uses a lowball strategy to determine contracts and the fighters are coming back with a highball strategy. Fighters end up looking at other options for leverage, so the ufc begins using tactics such as putting a fighter against an opponent which is stylistically a boring matchup and then putting him on the undercard in order to damage their marketability. What do we get from all this? a few fighters who are sick and tired of how the ufc operates and will go somewhere if the price is right. What needs to happen? there needs to be a pay structure agreed upon by both fighters and ufc management... it exists in other sports... a salary cap, or maybe salary "floor" so to speak. The ufc can only afford to pay fighters so much at the moment, their aggressive expansion and legal issues has taken its toll on the money available to zuffa, but why is that the fighters' problem? The sport is huge and the fighters have played their part in growing it until this point, and they're definately not getting their piece of the pie.

I'm a business student and so when i see this situation, i think stock options. Maybe zuffa doesnt have the money now, but with bud coming in as a sponsor, a possible deal with fox on the horizon, and the way this sport is growing and expanding, its only a matter of time before the pockets become deep again. The fighter's deserve a piece of the pie.. the ufc cant afford the money, but that doesnt mean that they cant give them a slice.

silverbullet

3/11/08 8:43:54PM

Tito's head looks huge in that photo

Ordep

3/11/08 9:41:49PM

Posted by silverbullet

Tito's head looks huge in that photo

I seems sort of photoshop if you don't know Tito, but we all know is real.

telnights

3/11/08 10:08:24PM

Posted by silverbullet

Tito's head looks huge in that photo

yeah I think it the suit doing it and the fact his head is huge anyways.

snakeplissken

3/12/08 2:39:41AM

See, here's the thing. A lot of these fighters are coming up to being past their best i.e. Tito.

So when they go wandering off for more money, its a bit like TNA and WWE, the wrestlers leave for whatever reason ie Kurt Angle, goto TNA but then these opposing companies just look like wannabes and not building their own image.

At least the UFC is trying to build next generation so to speak through their ultimate fighter series and not just holding fast on the old glories.